AltWeeklies Wire
Pretentiously Played: Peter Jackson's Sickly Sweet Schlocknew
'The Lovely Bones' is a steaming, treacly pile of excrescence, frosted with visuals that look like they were adapted from the pink, lace-covered dream journal of a unicorn-collecting scrapbooker. Essentially, if Walt Disney made a movie about the rape and murder of a teenager, this is the movie he'd make.
Tucson Weekly |
James DiGiovanna |
01-13-2010 |
Reviews
Tags: The Lovely Bones, Peter Jackson
An Autistic Child Gets Aid From Mongolian Shamans in an Effective Documentarynew
The Horse Boy is a documentary about Rowan, a 5-year-old boy with severe autism-related behavioral problems. His father, Rupert Isaacson, is a journalist and human-rights activist who loves horses.
Tucson Weekly |
James DiGiovanna |
01-06-2010 |
Reviews
Tags: Michel O. Scott, The Horse Boy
'Bronson' Fails at Melding Violence, Artsy Filmmaking and Naked Penisesnew
Knowing that there's an audience of action-loving young men who'll pay to see violence and bloodshed, director Nicolas Winding Refn loaded his movie up with fighting, Dada-esque mime sequences and full frontal male nudity. Because: Huh?
Tucson Weekly |
James DiGiovanna |
12-10-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Bronson, Nicolas Winding Refn
Humans are Evil new
Antichrist might be worth hating, but the film is nonetheless incredibly compelling.
Tucson Weekly |
James DiGiovanna |
12-02-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Antichrist, Lars von Trier
'Pirate Radio' Sinks Due to Flat Characters and Abundant Movie Clichesnew
On the upside, Pirate Radio is beautifully shot. It's loaded with the kind of cinematic trickery that was popular back in the '60s. So if you were tripping on five hits of acid, and your heightened consciousness was somehow filtering out all the dialogue, it would be a pretty good movie.
Tucson Weekly |
James DiGiovanna |
11-18-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Pirate Radio, Richard Curtis
'An Education' is a Coming-of-Age Romance with an Effectively Creepy Feelnew
My biggest problem with horror movies is that I do like scary movies, and I just don't find horror films to be very scary. But An Education is terrifying. It's the most effectively frightening film I've seen since that Larry King/Tom DeLay sex video was accidentally shown on Oprah.
Tucson Weekly |
James DiGiovanna |
11-11-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: An Education, Lone Scherfig
'The Damned United' Tells a 1970s British Soccer Tale in an Engrossing Waynew
Michael Sheen is endlessly fun to watch; his David Frost in Frost/Nixon and his Tony Blair in The Queen are both impeccable, but his turn in The Damned United makes a serious case for not only being his best work, but also some of the best acting of the year.
Tucson Weekly |
James DiGiovanna |
11-04-2009 |
Reviews
Other Than the Fact That It's Boring, 'Bright Star' is a Fine Filmnew
Watching Bright Star was like having dinner while sitting across from a couple who are completely in love. "Wow, you guys sure like to touch noses. Umm ... waiter? Can I get some more bread? Waiter? Hello?"
Tucson Weekly |
James DiGiovanna |
10-29-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Bright Star, Jane Campion
The Coen Brothers Follow One Man's Effort to Know More than He Cannew
Stories that go nowhere are generally not good entertainment. But stories about stories that go nowhere, as Joel and Ethan Coen have shown with A Serious Man, can be incredible.
Tucson Weekly |
James DiGiovanna |
10-29-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: A Serious Man, The Coen Brothers
'Big Fan' Succeeds Because the Loser at its Center Isn't Ridiculed or Reformednew
Right now, Big Fan is easily one of the best, and most creative, films of the year. Its originality comes not from wild ideas or fantastic plot devices, but from exploring from the inside, and with sympathy, a form of life that has in the past only been subjected to ridicule and reform.
Tucson Weekly |
James DiGiovanna |
10-15-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Big Fan, Robert Siegel
In His Biofuels-Promoting Doc 'Fuel,' Joshua Tickell Tries to Do Too Muchnew
Joshua Tickell is very serious about biodiesel. Also, he just married a folk singer; he hates pollution; and he has a video camera. In short: Watch out, America, because there's a documentary full of sincerity coming your way.
Tucson Weekly |
James DiGiovanna |
10-07-2009 |
Reviews
Jimmy Page Charms in 'It Might Get Loud'new
While The Edge hates and Jack White poses, Page just revels in music. His face continually lights up as he spins old discs; his 64-year-old body slides into recurring boogie mode; and he shakes and grooves with his guitar like he was still the lean young man in Led Zeppelin.
Tucson Weekly |
James DiGiovanna |
09-23-2009 |
Reviews
'9': Puppets With Weaponsnew
The message of the mediocre 9: Evil is bad, but cuteness is awesome!
Tucson Weekly |
James DiGiovanna |
09-16-2009 |
Reviews
'Extract' Has Moments of Excellence, but it's No 'Office Space'new
The movie suffers from its inherent sitcom silliness, as well as from a painfully neat ending that ties everything up in a bow and covers it with sugar sprinkles. But Extract isn't a terrible film; it's just a flawed one.
Tucson Weekly |
James DiGiovanna |
09-16-2009 |
Reviews
'In the Loop': War Machinenew
A fictional exploration hilariously takes aim at chicken-hawk politicians.
Tucson Weekly |
James DiGiovanna |
09-02-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Armando Iannucci, In the Loop
